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Mr Dresser said the Tesco row over prices with Unilever was a "pre-cursor" to other moves by suppliers to put up the costs of their products.

He added: "No one wants to put prices up ahead of Christmas. Others may just wait until January."

"It's only going to get more painful," he cautioned.

What the retail industry says

Former chief executives of Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and B&Q all warned ahead of the EU referendum that a drop in the pound - coupled with supply chain disruption - would cause prices to spike.

The Tesco stand-off with Unilever came hours after former Sainsbury's boss Justin King said shoppers should expect price rises after the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the pricing spat was likely to be the "thin end of the wedge".

"This kind of friction is an inevitable result of the unstoppable force of higher import costs hitting the immovable object of UK retail pricing," he added.

Supermarkets are already taking a hit amid a fierce price war in the sector sparked off by the rising popularity of discounters Aldi and Lidl.

Consumers have been enjoying four years in a row of falling retail prices, but the pressures of the weak pound is set to bring this to an end.